


Tides

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Tides [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Epic Friendship, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Gen, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, POV Alternating, Post-Time Skip, Team, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-03-27
Updated: 2005-06-29
Packaged: 2018-01-12 08:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years have changed them and their world, and it takes time to put friendships back together.  Team 7, AU after the timeskip.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tension, Before

**Author's Note:**

> This story goes AU from the manga shortly after the timeskip. The basic idea is that Gaara was rescued before his tailed beast was removed, Kakashi wasn't wiped out by the mission, and Team 7 promptly kidnapped Sasuke from Hidden Sound before Orochimaru's plans matured, with no involvement from either Sai or Yamato.
> 
> Then things get complicated. *grin*

Seeing Sasuke again after all these years is strange, and Sakura's not quite sure what to feel.

Anger, yes, there's some of that. Actually, there's a lot -- what was he _thinking_ , leaving them behind and running off to the Sound? True strength isn't curse seals that twist your body until you're barely human anymore. True strength isn't being alone with no human ties to slow you down.

True strength is knowing that your friends keep you sane, that your friends give you a reason to keep fighting, and that your friends will lend you their own strength whenever you need it. Even if they're complete idiots the rest of the time.

So yeah, Sakura's angry.

But she's also limp with relief -- Sasuke is still _Sasuke_ , still the one in charge of his own body, not just a flesh puppet for Orochimaru to wear. She's thrilled that their rescue mission worked, that she and Naruto and Kakashi got the drop on him during his stint as a gate guard, that he's back in Konoha and _safe_. She's worried that Sasuke won't want to stay when he wakes up, or that Kakashi won't be able to spin his reinstatement in Leaf-nin ranks as a clever psychological strike against both Orochimaru and Akatsuki (in the person of his brother... and why didn't Sasuke ever _tell_ them about Itachi?) and the council will execute him as a traitor.

And deep down where she won't admit it to herself -- she's _so_ over that crush, and she can see now that he never loved her back, not that way -- Inner Sakura is drooling over his face and his hair and his _body_... slim and tall and covered with tight muscle, and she'd bet a month's salary that Sasuke's even _more_ flexible now than when he was twelve...

She's pretty sure nobody but Tsunade would take her up on that bet, and everyone knows that if Tsunade has any luck gambling, something's very wrong with the state of the world.

"Sakura-chan? Hey, hey, Sakura? Sa-ku-ra!" Naruto waves a hand in her face and Sakura blinks at him, still surprised that she has to look up an inch or so to meet his eyes. "Oh, good, you're awake. I thought maybe you passed out with your eyes open."

Sakura's about to bash him reflexively for insinuating that she'd fall asleep before Sasuke wakes up, but then her conscious mind catches the genuine concern in Naruto's voice and the not-quite pain in his blue eyes and she lets her hand fall harmlessly to her side. "Not until Sasuke wakes up, and we know what the council decides."

"Yeah. I hope the old geezers hurry up." Naruto huffs out a deep sigh and shoves his hands into his pockets, staring at Sasuke. Their former teammate is strapped to a hospital bed in this barred and warded room, and fresh rings of black symbols wrap around his bare shoulder, containing the curse seal. To Sakura's trained eyes, the three marks pulse with muted but malevolent intent; for the moment Orochimaru's power is quiescent, but she doesn't trust it to stay asleep. Neither do Kakashi and Jiraiya-san -- which is why Naruto is in this room. If Sasuke breaks loose, if he can draw on the curse seal even through the wards, nobody but Naruto has the power to stop him.

Sakura's here because she refuses to let Naruto face Sasuke alone. If things go wrong, if Naruto has to play executioner, she's going to be right here beside him. She won't let him carry that guilt alone. Besides, she has warding scrolls in her pockets; even if they won't stop Sasuke for good, they should hold him long enough to give Naruto a clean strike.

Neither of them really wants Sasuke to suffer, not even if he's warped himself enough that he might not be _their_ Sasuke anymore.

And if Sasuke comes to his senses, if he listens to their arguments and offers of help, if he's willing to stay, there's no way on earth Sakura's going to let the boys have their reunion without her. Nobody's going to leave her behind anymore. Naruto knows that now. He's seen her fight. He's seen her heal. Sasuke will learn that soon enough.

If he wakes up and he's _their_ Sasuke, then even if the council decides against him, they won't let him go. Before Kakashi and Tsunade left for the council meeting, Kakashi reminded them that ninja who don't support their comrades are lower than trash, and Tsunade stretched and commented idly that Akatsuki was probably Konoha's number one enemy these days, and she really hoped someone would think of a way to strike at them.

Sakura knows that even if they take Sasuke and run, no Anbu or hunter-nin will chase them. Naruto's still uneasy about leaving Konoha without official permission -- he loves the village almost as much as his small collection of precious people -- but he hates Akatsuki more than Sakura thought he could hate anything. Itachi is part of Akatsuki. Itachi thinks of Naruto as a _thing_ , as a container for the Kyuubi. Itachi thinks of Sasuke as a thing too -- as an experiment of sorts, as a catnip mouse for a bored tiger. Itachi thinks Sakura is even less than that; to him, Sakura is nothing.

Sakura and Naruto will be more than happy to help Sasuke kill his brother, if he'll accept their help. If he's still _their_ Sasuke. If they can reach him through the tunnel vision, the curse seal, and the years of Orochimaru's influence. If not... well, they'll kill Itachi anyway and bury his eyes in Sasuke's grave.

But Sakura hopes it won't come to that. Sasuke has so much to live for, if he'd only open his eyes. He has her. He has Naruto. He has Kakashi. Maybe he lost his birth family, but he can build a new one the way Naruto has. She'd like to be part of his family.

...As a _sister_ , she tells herself, smothering a blush and pushing Inner Sakura back into the depths. She's over him, she really is, and she couldn't ever go back to making Sasuke her whole world anyway. She couldn't shut Naruto out anymore.

"Wake up already, bastard," Naruto mutters, but the insult lacks any bite and his eyes are worried.

Sasuke groans. His eyelids flutter.

Sakura inches a bit closer to Naruto and waits for the shape of her future to come clear.


	2. First Steps

Darkness swirls and ebbs, and he can hear himself breathing. Faint echoes return to his ears; he's inside, in a small room. He's flat on his back, and he's alive.

"Wake up already, bastard," someone mutters. The voice is deeper and quieter than he remembers, but still unmistakable. Besides, Sasuke thinks as he flexes his muscles without actually moving, nobody but Naruto is stupid enough to call him bastard to his face.

Nobody but Naruto is stupid enough to leave him alive, either, and Sasuke isn't dead. Instead, he can feel restraints around his wrists, arms, legs, ankles, and chest, strapping him to a flat, minimally padded surface, and something is indefinably _off_ with his chakra, so he's probably being held prisoner. Which is just like the moron -- too stupid to believe that they're not friends anymore, too stupid to realize that there's no going back, too stupid to go for the quick kill when he has the chance. But if Naruto still thinks he can fix things, Sasuke decides he might as well work with that. He's always been able to push the moron's buttons, and after three years he's learned not to respond when people push his own. Maybe he's tied up, but he still has the advantage.

He groans, softly, and lets his eyelids flutter as he tips his head to the right, toward Naruto's voice. Any decent shinobi can scan a room in seconds and the Sharingan lets Sasuke fill in the fuzzy areas and memorize everything in less than half a heartbeat.

Sakura stands next to Naruto. Sasuke isn't surprised.

What does surprise him is how three years have changed and yet not changed his old teammates. Logically he knew time wouldn't pass them by, no more than it passed over him, but seeing the changes, seeing them taller and harder, seeing their hands hovering near weapons as they watch him, stirs an odd feeling in his gut. Sasuke suppresses the sensation, whatever it is, and studies the image trapped on the backs of his eyelids.

Naruto isn't seeping chakra anymore; instead, his power is wrapped and wound and poised, ready to lash out under control for once. Now that the moron's finally standing still, now that his face isn't distorted by any of his violent emotions and his blue eyes are steady and cool, Naruto almost looks like the worthy opponent he turned out to be. (Even if he did cheat. Fox demons were not part of the bargain.) And he's still wearing orange, but less of it these days -- he's added some black to the mix. Naruto looks... stained, Sasuke thinks. Was he the cause of that?

He refocuses and dismisses the thought as an aftereffect of unconsciousness, a lingering dream fragment. His dreams are always dark, even when they end in bloody satisfaction.

Sakura is still as pink and superficially pretty as ever, somehow rescuing herself from drabness by a subtle trick of posture and the gleam in her green eyes. She's always looked best when she doesn't try, when she drops her frilly masks and lets her rage and determination shine through -- not that Sasuke had ever been looking, exactly, and not that she liked showing that side to him, but it wasn't easy to ignore a person who constantly danced around the edges of his personal space, and Naruto could always bring down her masks.

They're down now and she's frowning. One hand holds a scroll, and from the way Sakura's tapping it against her thigh, thumb ready to flick it open and forefinger ready to draw blood and activate the jutsu, she's treating it as a weapon. Sasuke's fairly sure he doesn't want to learn firsthand what sort of summoning or seal it contains.

He starts tensing and relaxing his muscles, preparing for a fast break, and wonders what sort of situation he's landed in. He can't read either of his former teammates. Sasuke doesn't like that -- he's always been able to read people when he wants to bother, more so since he mastered the Sharingan and suffered through Kabuto's psychology lessons. But somewhere, somehow, Naruto's learned to blank his face, and Sakura's cycling through emotions too fast for him to keep up and analyze how they fit together.

All he can read is determination. They have a plan, and if he doesn't like it, whatever it is, he'll probably have to kill them to stop them from carrying it out.

He... doesn't exactly want to kill them. It would be wasteful. And they never exactly hurt him, not in any ways that matter. They just didn't understand that they were standing in his way.

He might as well find out their plan. Who knows? He might actually agree to it. The sky might also fall, but there's rarely any harm in playing for time.

Sasuke raises his head the inch or two he's allowed and focuses on his former teammates; he feels an odd thrill when they don't flinch from the Sharingan whirling in his eyes. "Where are we, why am I alive, and who has the authority to release me?"

"Bastard. Can't even say thanks or threaten to kill us," Naruto grumbles, and sidesteps Sakura's backhand slap.

She frowns at him, then slips her scroll into a pocket as she steps toward the bed. "It's good to see you awake, Sasuke. We're in the recovery room of the interrogation center. The council is deciding whether to offer you reinstatement; Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade Hokage-sama are pleading your case."

Kakashi? Sasuke blinks, puts several pieces together rapidly, and opens his mouth.

"Yes, your curse seal is warded," Sakura says before he can ask.

He nods, the tingling imbalance in his chakra now explained. "Why are you here? Why would I stay? And again, why am I alive?"

Annoyance flashes across Naruto's face, and he strides across the room to poke Sasuke in the shoulder. "Because you're our teammate, bastard. Because you shouldn't have left in the first place. And because we want Akatsuki as much as you want Itachi -- it'll be easier if we work together."

Sasuke finds himself blinking again. He hasn't blinked in surprise in nearly two years -- for a ninja whose bloodline limit depends on his eyes, unnecessary blinking is a dangerous weakness. But... they want to work _with_ him?

No. _That man_ is _his_.

Sakura seems to sense his anger, and she grabs his hair, pulling his head forward until his spine screams against the restraints. "Listen to me, Sasuke. You. Are. Our. Teammate. Your missions are our missions. You want Itachi? Well, Itachi wants Naruto. Stick with us and your brother will come to you." She slams his head against the thin mattress and Sasuke wonders, idly, just when the unfocused kunoichi he remembers grew so strong.

She's talking again. "If you want to kill Itachi all by yourself, we won't stop you. But we _can_ stop his partner and any other Akatsuki members he has with him. Just because you're an avenger doesn't mean you have to do everything on your own. It doesn't make you any less than that twisted psychopath.

"Maybe he killed your clan all by himself, but he had the element of surprise on his side. He's _expecting_ you to attack, and to attack alone -- he's spent years convincing you to think that way. If Naruto and I come with you, we'll be _your_ element of surprise. We can make him play the game your way instead of letting him force you into his game."

Sakura shakes Sasuke's head one last time and lets him drop back to the bed, mind spinning.

They want to work _with_ him? Make Itachi play _his_ game? Sasuke finds himself blinking again, and ruthlessly wrenches his eyes back open. This entire encounter makes no sense.

"Yeah, what Sakura-chan said -- that goes for me too," Naruto adds, beaming at Sakura. "We make better deals than the Snake-freak. He wants your body. We just want you not to die like an idiot." He grins, eyes crinkling upward into mocking crescents. "Besides, I'm the one who brought you here. If you still can't beat me after three years, how are you gonna beat Itachi all by yourself?"

"I'm not an idiot, you moron," Sasuke snaps instinctively, "and you cheated. The Kyuubi isn't--" Then he notices what he's saying and scowls. What is it about Naruto that makes him lose all his control and fall back into acting like a sulky toddler? He's better than this.

Naruto snorts. "Hey, hey, which one of us _agreed_ to turn into a monster?"

Sakura backhands Naruto again, and this time the moron doesn't dodge. He falls back a step, rubbing the red handprint on his whiskered cheek. Sakura scowls. "Stop it, both of you. Now listen, Sasuke. If they agree to reinstate you, you'll be under guard for at least a month while they test your loyalty. If they don't agree, or you don't accept, you'll be executed tomorrow."

Sasuke returns her questioning glance with a blank stare. He already knows this. Everyone knows that missing-nin are only accepted back under heavy guard. Everyone knows it's easier to stay angry and execute traitors instead of welcoming them home.

Sakura sighs. "Maybe you are an idiot. You're our teammate, remember? You want Itachi. We want all his partners. And we don't want to lose you again. So... will you accept reinstatement, or will you run?"

Sasuke turns his face away. "The moron's infected you. There's nothing for me in Konoha."

"Liar," Naruto growls, and a clawed hand seizes Sasuke's cheek and twists his head back to face Sakura and the door. Naruto stares down with burning, animalistic eyes, the whisker marks on his cheeks darkened and blurred wide, and his teeth bared in a fanged snarl. " _We're_ in Konoha, me and Kakashi and Sakura-chan and all the others. If they can accept _me_ , what the hell makes you think we won't accept _you_ , you bastard?"

"Naruto."

Sakura's voice slices through the hypnotic intensity of Naruto's glare, and the claws pull back from Sasuke's face, retreating into soft fingernails as Naruto shoves his hand into his pocket. "Yeah, yeah, I know, don't push it, stay in control."

"Good." Tension seeps out of Sakura's shoulders and she slides her scroll away again. Sasuke manages not to blink -- and congratulates himself -- despite realizing that the scroll is as much to contain Naruto as to contain himself.

Maybe the Kyuubi isn't as perfect a cheat as he'd thought.

In any case, the point remains. Sasuke has no reason to stay in Konoha and every reason to leave. However... he doesn't necessarily have to return to the Sound. Orochimaru must know of his capture by now, and Orochimaru will assume that he's dead -- will assume that Tsunade was perfectly willing to kill a traitor to deny him his favored host -- unless Sasuke provides some convincing evidence otherwise.

He's learned a lot in three years. He'd like to kill _that man_ while he's in control of his own body. All he has to do is keep his escape quiet.

"You're gonna leave, aren't you," Naruto says. It isn't a question; his blue eyes are hard and sharp when Sasuke looks up to meet them. Maybe the moron's learned useful things of his own in three years.

"Yes," Sasuke says. Why deny what all three of them know is true?

Sakura and Naruto exchange a glance, and then Sakura nods decisively. "All right. Naruto, get the clone ready. I'll set the seal and the genjutsu."

Sasuke restrains the urge to blink. What are they planning. And _why_ can't he read these two?

Sakura mutters to herself as her fingers fly through seals; a strange, hollow feeling settles over the room. 'Nothing is happening, nobody's here,' it whispers. 'This isn't the chakra you're looking for.'

A soft pop and a gust of air wash from the far corner, and Sasuke raises his head to see Naruto glancing between the bed and a pale, black-haired figure. It takes him nearly two full seconds to realize Naruto has created a clone and disguised it to mimic Sasuke. And mimic him perfectly.

He snorts to himself. He shouldn't be surprised that the moron can pull off this disguise; it certainly isn't the first time he's tried it. But what does Naruto need a second Uchiha for? Theories spin through Sasuke's mind, but the only one that makes any sense is completely illogical. They _can't_ be doing what he thinks they're doing. Not even these two can be that stupid.

...Can they?

"I'm sorry about this, Sasuke, but we can't take any extra risks until we're well away from Konoha," Sakura says from behind him.

Sasuke jerks his eyes upward as her bloody fingers descend and press against his forehead. His breath is suddenly loud in his ears, and he's losing contact with his body. He grasps for his chakra but it slips through his control, weaving into foreign patterns.

"You'd better be worth this, bastard," Naruto says.

Yes, Sasuke thinks as he tumbles back into the depths, this madness had better be worth the price. Or somebody is going to die, and it won't be him.

Darkness swirls and he drowns.


	3. Tame

Sasuke's heavy for someone so thin, but most ninja are heavy for their size. Chakra only goes so far without muscle to back it up, and muscle isn't light.

Of course, Naruto could carry Sasuke three times over without getting tired, but the extra weight still slows him down. It changes his balance so he has to actually think about his movements instead of just slipping through the trees. He has Sasuke slung around his shoulders, and floppy arms and legs keep getting in the way of his steps and jumps.

"You just had to still be taller, bastard," he grumbles under his breath, careful not to let Sakura overhear. She knows he doesn't really mean it, but he doesn't want to distract her while she's holding the genjutsu that says nobody's here. He _really_ doesn't want to get caught helping a missing-nin escape. Even if the missing-nin is Sasuke and most people would probably understand team loyalty.

Someday, Naruto reminds himself, he's going to be Hokage. He's gonna have to make the hard decisions, like Tsunade-baba does, and he's gonna have to have people trust him. People are already scared of the Kyuubi. Kidnapping Sasuke, which looks like he's turning traitor (even though he isn't!), really won't help anything.

But a team is a team, and Sasuke's his friend. His first friend, and probably still his best friend, as screwed up as that is. Naruto still doesn't understand why the hell Sasuke ran off to the Snake-freak -- yeah, he gets that Sasuke wants to kill his brother, and that the Snake-freak gave him a shortcut, but Naruto can't make the pieces fit together in any way that justifies turning on his friends -- and he doesn't think he'll ever really be able to forgive what happened to the retrieval team, but deep down, there's a part of him that hates the world and spits and claws like a rabid fox -- not the Kyuubi, just a normal fox with its paw in a trap -- and he knows Sasuke has a rabid animal inside too.

Probably a wildcat. Or a lion. Naruto considers as he slaps his left hand to a branch for stability before springing forward again. Yeah, a lion -- the bastard's hair sticks out kinda the right way.

The difference between them is that Naruto knows the rabid fox is wrong. He knows he's better than that. Somewhere Sasuke forgot that he isn't supposed to listen to the lion. Or maybe Sasuke thought he could cage the lion by himself -- which is stupid, 'cause the only way Naruto knows to shut up the fox is to remind himself that he's human, and that other people are there to help him if he asks.

For a genius, Sasuke can be really dumb.

Naruto's leading the way since he can track better than Sakura. She asked him, when they rescued Gaara three months ago, if he was cheating with the Kyuubi. It's a fair question, he guesses, since he used to be, um... kinda easy to distract... but Uzumaki Naruto does not cheat! He learned to track properly all on his own (well, okay, the old pervert beat it into him) and he can't help it if growing up with the damn demon inside kinda fiddled with his nose and eyes as well as his chakra. Nobody ever says Kiba cheats 'cause he has a dog's nose.

_Anyway_ , he's heading for Wave Country. He spent some time there last year with the old pervert, and it's really come to life since Tazuna finished his bridge. It'll be easy to get lost in all those people, and in the meantime there's nothing strange about three ninja traveling that direction. There's a lot of business in Wave Country now -- mostly supplies and information trading -- and it's a good place to catch boats heading all over the continent.

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan?" Sakura turns her head with a frown, and Naruto slaps himself for forgetting that she's holding the genjutsu. Oh well, might as well ask now. "Should we take a boat in Wave Country or head inland instead?"

Sakura considers this, her forehead wrinkling as she thinks. Naruto's never understood why people made fun of her forehead; it gives her character, and it shows that she's smart. Now she's got that gleam in her eyes that says she's calculating odds, figuring things out.

"It depends," she says. "A boat will get us away from Konoha faster, but we'll be isolated for a while. If we travel by land, Itachi will have a better chance of taking the bait and coming after us -- so we might be done sooner -- but if the council disobeys Tsunade, we might run into trouble with Anbu. We also might be targeted by other missing-nin looking to sell us to Akatsuki."

Other missing-nin? Naruto scowls, shifting his grip on Sasuke's limp weight. They can't afford to get worn down by trash before they find Akatsuki. ...And he's not sure how soon he wants to finish this mission. There's still no guarantee Sasuke will come home with them, or that the council will think even Itachi's death is enough payment to forgive him for leaving in the first place. There's no guarantee that they'll be able to work with Sasuke like they used to.

Scratch that. If they work together like they used to, Itachi will rip them into bloody little shreds. They need to actually fight as a team.

"We need time," Naruto says. "We need a lot of time."

Sakura smiles at him, and he can see she'd already figured that out and was waiting to see if he was going to be smart instead of just charging right in. "Yes, we do. We'll take a boat."

Naruto huffs to himself. Sakura can be so patronizing sometimes, especially when she thinks she's got everything figured out. She's still precious to him, though. She'll always be precious, even if she'll never see him the way he wants her to.

He grins now, tickled that he's thought of something she missed. "Yeah, and what's Sasuke gonna do to the crew when he wakes up in the middle of the water?"

Sakura frowns. "Oh. I didn't think of that -- do you really think he won't listen to us?"

Naruto shrugs as best he can with Sasuke slumped all over his shoulders. "Eh, who knows? He didn't seem crazy back in the room, but I don't think he really believes we're gonna stick with him. And he _is_ supposed to be dead. I bet he won't like witnesses."

"Shit. You're right."

It always throws him for a second when Sakura curses. It doesn't seem to fit her, not Sakura-chan. When she's mad she yells and hits things, but she's still _polite_ about it -- except really she's not so polite anymore. Naruto frowns as he thinks back over the past few months. Huh. Maybe Tsunade-baba taught Sakura more than just medical ninjutsu and how to hit even harder.

He'll have to yell at the old lady when they get home. He and Sasuke curse more than enough for their team. They don't need Sakura starting as well.

Naruto and Sakura bicker back and forth over how pissed off Sasuke's going to be when he wakes up, whether he'd actually kill random people or burn a boat to bits before he calms down and listens to them, whether they can train better on land or on the water, whether Sakura can learn to run a ship from reading (Sasuke, of course, can just copy a sailor -- cheating bastard), what direction to go after they reach Wave Country, and other stuff like that.

Nobody wins any of the arguments, but by an unspoken decision, after they set up camp for the night, Sakura slices a kunai across her fingers and releases Sasuke from his forced sleep. "He'd better not go nuts and make you put him under again," Naruto grumbles. "I'm sick of carrying him, and he drooled all over my jacket."

Sakura throws a stick at him. Naruto lets it bounce off his forehead, then uses it to spit the rabbit that stumbled into one of Sakura's traps. He might as well have food ready when Sasuke wakes up.

It takes the bastard almost half an hour to finish his beauty sleep.

Then, one second he's out of it and the next he's halfway across the clearing with his fingers in the last seal for a fire jutsu. Red-and-black eyes blink, narrow, and watch Naruto and Sakura warily. "This isn't Konoha," he says.

Sakura's hand makes an aborted motion, and Naruto grins to himself -- ha, she wanted to throw a stick at the bastard! Not so cow-eyed over Sasuke-kun anymore. Of course, she still loves him -- this is one of the unchangeable facts of Naruto's life -- but she actually sees Sasuke these days, not just her crazy fantasies and rivalry with Ino.

"Yeah, genius, it isn't Konoha. Sit down and eat," Naruto says, slicing a wide strip of meat from the rabbit's carcass. He holds the kunai and meat out toward Sasuke.

_See?_ he wants to say. _I'm giving you a weapon. We trust you, you stupid bastard. Why won't you trust us?_

Sasuke hesitates, then slides forward and snatches the kunai from Naruto's hand. He takes a bite of the rabbit, chews, and says, "You cooked it too long."

Typical.

Sakura catches Naruto's eye. 'No boat,' she mouths. 'He'd drive everyone crazy in half a day.'

'Told you so,' Naruto mouths back, grinning.

"I can read lips," Sasuke announces, not actually looking at either of them. His eyes are still red-and-black with the Sharingan, like he won't let his guard down for a second, even around them.

'Oops. We can use Zabuza's old hideout instead,' Sakura mouths, undaunted, refusing to turn her head toward Sasuke. Her eyes sparkle.

"Good idea," Naruto says out loud, folding his hands behind his head and letting a wide grin slide over his face at Sasuke's disapproving grunt.

Heh. So they can't go back to the way things used to be. That's not so bad -- things obviously kinda sucked if none of them were actually willing to deal with the real people instead of what they tried to show each other -- if he pretended nothing could hurt him; if Sakura pretended he was an idiot, Sasuke was perfect, and she was nothing but sweet and pretty; if Sasuke pretended he didn't care about anyone; if they all pretended everything was just fine.

No pretending this time. Sakura's dropping her act. Naruto's not jumping around so much -- there are better ways to prove that he's worth something. And Sasuke... well, this time they won't let him listen to the rabid lion.

Maybe you can't cage the beast. But you can hold out your hand to the person and never take 'no' for an answer. You can always stand at his side. You can believe in him.

And you can make the lion human.


	4. Threads

Sasuke refuses to let her within two feet of his body. He offers no explanation, but Sakura knows he's wary of seals, wary of the way she can shut down his mind and body with a single touch. She feels no particular need to tell him that total anesthetic seals need at least two minutes' set up and that a determined and active ninja can easily guard against them, nor that she can work simpler medical ninjutsu from a distance of at least ten yards.

Sasuke's made no signs of abandoning her and Naruto, but she likes the security of knowing he's basing his moves on an inaccurate picture of her skills. If he changes his mind, or if Orochimaru can use the curse seal as a form of long-distance control, Sakura can take him down before he starts looking for an attack... or at least shake him long enough for Naruto to step in.

She was surprised, back in Konoha, to realize Sasuke had no resistance whatsoever to her seal, but on reflection, it would've been even stranger for Kabuto to teach people to resist his own skills. That medic-nin struck her as vaguely untrustworthy as long ago as their first chuunin exam, and Naruto and Tsunade's stories only cemented her dislike. Medic-nin can't keep the traditional healer's oath -- they're still ninja, still required to fight and kill and disable -- but they do follow its spirit as much as possible.

Tsunade _defends_ Konoha. She would do almost anything rather than start a war -- she's never said anything straight out, but Sakura's watched her teacher react to mission reports and pace her office, running her hands through her hair and twisting her face into a pained scowl, whenever Orochimaru's name comes up.

Sakura hasn't taken her healer's oath yet -- Tsunade was going to give her the final tests two months from now. So she isn't breaking any promises by deciding to kill Itachi in cold blood. She doesn't have to wait for orders, or ask for an assessment of the costs and benefits of a human's death. She doesn't have to ask the kami for forgiveness and think of an appropriate penance for her transgression.

When Itachi is dead, she thinks, she wants to break Kabuto's fingers past the point of effective repair, and seal his chakra. Let him learn firsthand the pain he's caused others, learn not only the physical pain, but also the emotional pain of having his life's work, his most precious things, torn from him.

He claims he's a medic-nin. Sakura wraps her arms more firmly around her knees and glares into the tiny campfire that Naruto built and Sasuke lit. Medic-nin don't leave their patients tangled up into knots, unable to accept a helping hand. Medic-nin don't turn people into sociopaths.

Kabuto wants revenge for the destruction of his village during the great wars. Kabuto, who found a family in Konoha, who learned a skill, who could have made a home.

Physician, heal thyself.

"What're you mad at now, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asks, breaking into her thoughts.

"Oath breakers," she says, and then clarifies: "Kabuto. When we're done, I want to kill him too."

Naruto shrugs easily and slouches back against a tree, firelight staining him even more orange than usual. He looks half asleep; Sakura knows how misleading that impression is. "Hey, I'll help you," he says. "I owe him for the last time we met -- he tried to kill Tsunade-baba." His grin emphasizes his slightly too-sharp canines, and his eyes don't crinkle the way they do when he's happy. Sakura wonders when she watched him enough to notice the difference.

In the corner of her eye, she can see Sasuke's attention snap back from wherever his mind was wandering; is he interested in Kabuto or Tsunade? "Tsunade-sensei never told me that," Sakura says. Probably she was embarrassed at being threatened by a man who perverts her own calling, or angry at herself for letting him get away. Tsunade likes to bury large pieces of her past.

"Yeah, that sounds like the old bag," Naruto grumbles. "She just doesn't want to admit that I saved her life."

" _You_ fought Kabuto?" Sasuke asks, raising an eyebrow.

Naruto glares. "Yeah, I did -- I'm not a liar! But he used some freaky healing jutsu and put himself back together after I hit him with Rasengan. Hey, hey, do you _like_ him or something, bastard? Don't tell me you _care_ about people in Hidden Sound."

Sasuke shrugs minimally. "No."

Naruto and Sakura wait, hoping he'll volunteer more information. He doesn't.

"Remind me again why we bothered?" Naruto asks nobody in particular. Sasuke twitches, so slightly Sakura would never have noticed if she hadn't been hoping for the movement.

Good, she thinks, letting the conversation lapse. He _does_ still care, even if he won't admit it to them. Actually, knowing Sasuke, he's probably not admitting it to himself either... or maybe he doesn't even _know_ what he's feeling. It's funny -- for a boy whose eyes can see everything, he's always missed an awful lot. For some reason, he never copied normal human behavior, normal human feelings. Any normal boy would have dealt better with her and Ino -- would at least have told them flat out that he wasn't interested and didn't like them.

Not Sasuke. He just glared and seemed to expect them to read his mind.

Maybe that works for Uchiha and Hyuuga, who can see and understand the slightest nuances of body language, but most people can't read that deeply. Even with three years of training in human physiology and psychology, Sakura still has to guess and hope.

"Look underneath the underneath," Kakashi always says. So. Underneath Sasuke's indifference and distrust, underneath his scorn and boredom, underneath his callousness... he never actually told her or Naruto to go away, not until the end. Even then, she thinks he might simply have wanted to keep them safe from the consequences of his choice.

That certainly didn't work very well.

They're a team. They were a team even during those three fractured years, and they're a team now as they fumble to fit the broken pieces back together and scrape glass against raw wounds. They're bound together by battle, by friendship, by trust -- Sasuke _must_ trust them to some extent or he'd be trying to leave -- and maybe... probably not, but a girl can hope... maybe by love.

A true ninja team is like a family, bound by blood. Their blood ties are ties of death, not of life, but blood ties all the same.

Sakura stares into the fire, letting Naruto and Sasuke's forms blur in her peripheral vision, one bright and one dark, fire and shadows, both simultaneously human and monstrous, shrouding inner horrors under a semblance of normality. Who would believe a cute, earnest, blond boy is a demon? Who would believe a pale, handsome boy can become a twisted oni? Sakura believes. But she believes even more in their humanity.

Most people would look at the three of them and dismiss her -- female, soft, raised in a loving family, without a special power, doomed to fall behind. But Sakura's seen underneath the underneath. She knows the boys need her, need her to be a bridge, need her to remind them they're more than monsters.

She's a medic-nin. She can't turn away. She needs them to need her.

Right now, the boys need her to be confident and cheerful and reassure them that they've made the right decisions. Sakura unwraps her arms from her knees as a weight tugs on one of her trap-wires. "I think that's dinner," she says, drawing a kunai. "Sasuke, make a skewer. Naruto, find the seasoning."

She walks into the darkness without looking back. She knows the boys will listen. If they don't -- if they start arguing -- she can always hit them so they'll think twice next time. Sakura grins to herself as she follows her wires; Tsunade may be the world's most incompetent person at judging odds, but she gives some remarkably useful relationship advice at times.

Tsunade is also a good teacher. Sakura feels the reassuring weight of scrolls in her pockets, slapping against her thigh as she carries the strangled squirrel back to the fire-lit clearing. She's been studying seals -- three years picking Kakashi's brain about the curse seal on Sasuke's shoulder, three years reading moldering records of what the Fourth Hokage did to Naruto, three years watching Tsunade bind and channel power. Kakashi didn't ward Sasuke's curse seal this time. _She_ did.

She took a drop of Naruto's blood when they returned from Hidden Sand. She took Sasuke's when they kidnapped him from Hidden Sound. With blood and ink, Sakura can track those two seals -- track her teammates, her... her _brothers_ \-- to the ends of the earth. And if the webs of ink shatter on her scrolls, if the bonds of blood unravel, she'll track the killers and bring her family justice.

No matter how many oaths she has to break.


	5. Contracts

Wave Country is very different from Sasuke's memories. The mainland port is bursting with life, as people move food, spices, cloth, pots, furniture, stone, wood, art, rugs, and hundreds of other likely and unlikely trade items back and forth over the Great Naruto Bridge.

"One bridge really made this much difference?" Sakura murmurs as they perch on a slanted rooftop, hidden behind elaborate ridgepole sculptures and painted grillwork on top of a row of dormer windows. She's leaning against something that resembles a lightning rod crossed with a giant squid, resting an arm on one curved bar of blue and scarlet iron; her other hand hovers near her pocket. Sasuke tries not to watch her hands too obviously.

"Old man Tazuna says it's because the bay is too shallow for the big trade ships, but with a bridge it's easy to move stuff out to the deep-water ports on the far side of the islands," Naruto says, scratching behind his ear. "But mostly I think it's just that we got rid of Gato, and they feel really proud of helping. They go around telling everyone how great Wave Country is, and it's kinda hard not to start believing them and wanting to pitch in. And the beaches are really nice, so they get a lot of tourists and stuff too."

"Beaches? Suddenly Jiraiya-san's travel itinerary makes much more sense," Sakura says dryly.

Naruto rocks back on his heels, arms spread wide to keep his balance on the steeply pitched roof. "Yeah, you wouldn't _believe_ how hard it was to make that old pervert stick his eyes back in his head and actually teach me new jutsu."

"Trust me," Sakura says, "I believe you."

Sasuke digs through his memory. Jiraiya, one of Orochimaru's old teammates... that strange, white-haired man who argued with Kakashi after Naruto destroyed a hospital water tower with Rasengan. He _taught_ that jutsu to the moron. And apparently he'd been traveling with Naruto since Sasuke left Konoha.

Sasuke huffs thoughtfully to himself. If Naruto's really more controlled now -- and he's certainly been quieter on this journey -- then maybe he won't get in the way when Itachi comes. Because Itachi will come; Sakura was right about that. _That man_ and his shadowy companions are hunting demons. Sooner or later Naruto will slip up, someone will notice him, gossip will travel... and Itachi will come.

What Sasuke resented most during his time in Hidden Sound was Orochimaru's refusal to let him take real missions outside the village. The self-proclaimed Otokage didn't want his new body damaged, which was understandable, Sasuke supposes, but still frustrating. He needs to take missions, needs to be seen, needs to build a reputation so _that man_ will come looking for _him_.

It isn't as though he'd be in any danger, not with the curse seal and Orochimaru's lessons, but Orochimaru is a peculiar mix of reckless bravado and ridiculously excessive caution. He tends -- no, _tended_ \-- to lean toward caution when dealing with Sasuke, probably afraid he'd leave the Sound the same way he left the Leaf. Orochimaru didn't want to lose the Sharingan before he had a chance to use it.

Naruto and Sakura aren't paranoid around Sasuke. Careful, yes -- but not because they're afraid _of_ him, or even because they're afraid he'll leave. He's still not quite certain what their reasons are -- it makes no sense to try forgiving him just because they happened to be a team three years ago -- but if anything, they seem to be afraid _for_ him, as if he's wounded or hacking up his lungs with some wasting disease.

"Hey, hey, bastard! You awake? We have a bridge to cross."

Sasuke frowns reflexively at Naruto, but follows the moron across the twilit roofs, slipping from shadow to shadow until they have only one large, open square between them and the bridge.

"On top or underneath?" Sakura asks.

Naruto shrugs. "Whatever. It's not like people are going to be surprised seeing shinobi around here."

"Underneath," Sasuke says, before he really thinks about it. Their heads snap around, and now he can read them easily: _Sasuke volunteered an opinion? Without being asked? Without insulting us or acting superior?_

He suppresses a smirk; they've changed so much, but they haven't changed at all.

"Or we could try water-walking," he adds, watching Naruto.

"What! Are you crazy, you stupid bastard? You can't walk on the ocean! It's too big! It moves too much! The chakra won't balance for more than a second!" Naruto waves his arms from his perch on a narrow chimney, slapping a startled pigeon and nearly overbalancing.

Sasuke folds his arms; this time he lets the smirk cross his face. "Sounds like a challenge to me."

Naruto's eyes narrow. "Oh, no, you're not going to get me this time. I don't care how many jutsu you copy -- there's no way to walk on the ocean, and you're not going to make me get wet."

"Loser."

"Oh yeah? Let's see _you_ try it!" Naruto lunges forward, drags Sasuke in a controlled slide down the house walls, and starts tugging him around the cobblestone square before a delicate hand slaps down where Naruto holds Sasuke's fingers prisoner.

"Both of you, stop."

Naruto starts whining, trying to soften Sakura's frown, but Sasuke isn't listening. He stares at that small, narrow-fingered hand and tries not to move. Her skin is rough from gardening, from gripping weapons, from breaking stone. Her fingertips are a mass of callus and scars from seals and summonings. The last three times she touched him, she warded his curse seal, slammed his head against a metal gurney, and knocked him unconscious with medical ninjutsu. He doesn't dare move.

Naruto isn't moving his hand either, but that's probably because he's not paying attention, or because he likes having Sakura touch him. The moron always was kind of stupid around her.

Sasuke frowns. Naruto _did_ love Sakura. And Sakura loved Sasuke. But neither of them is acting the same way they did three years ago, like wide-eyed puppies just begging to be kicked. So why are they falling into similar patterns? Naruto still whines and pushes at Sakura, and she still hits him. Naruto still insults and challenges him, and Sakura still watches him with a faraway expression. And Sasuke's... still trying to ignore them both.

But he isn't ignoring them. He _wants_ to ignore them, to observe and catalog weaknesses and slip away to keep them out of his business. Maybe he'd be playing Itachi's game, trying to do everything by himself, but his vengeance is a family affair. It's best to keep it in the family.

Instead, he's been cataloging strengths as well as weaknesses, and he's passed up two chances to escape. He keeps talking himself out of leaving, keeps staying another day to figure out what their motives can possibly be. He finds himself pushing back at Naruto and off-balance around Sakura. He's acting the same way he used to act.

Unacceptable.

"You _can_ water-walk on the ocean," Sasuke says, tearing his hand free and sliding three quick steps away.

"See? _See?_ " Naruto says to Sakura. "Come on, Sakura-chan..."

Sakura sighs and leads the way through the jumble of crates and barrels to the plaza's low wall. They drop down to the shore, which is lined with stones and sandbags to keep the bridge's footing from wearing away. Naruto gestures at the blue-gray waves, their peaks blurred by the shadow of the bridge, and grins. "Go on, bastard. Prove it."

Sasuke smiles, and leaps out over the breaking waves, landing on the springy ocean surface where the whitecaps haven't yet dragged against the sand. He tests his footing, and strides off toward the first piling that holds up Tazuna's massive bridge.

The trick to walking on the ocean doesn't have anything to do with special equipment or fancy ways to channel chakra. What most ninja forget -- foolishly, in Sasuke's opinion -- is that the world has its own chakra streams and reservoirs, and sometimes it's better to ask than to command. All true Uchiha learned that, once upon a time. You don't command fire jutsu; you summon and guide the flames, with a light hand. And you keep an eternal fire in your family shrine to honor the element that answers your call.

To walk on the ocean, you let the salt in your blood dance with the salt in the water, let your heartbeat synchronize with the rhythm of the waves -- or so Orochimaru said, when describing the esoteric skill he'd picked up in a tiny village in the far northwest. In more practical terms, you bleed into the water and hope the ocean deems you worthy.

It's very convenient, Sasuke thinks to himself, that his blood dripped into the water from this very bridge. He veers to the side, heading away from the bridge and along the shoreline. The ocean is vast, and it takes a long time for blood to travel from one part to another. He probably couldn't walk on waves twenty miles from this port... but Naruto and Sakura don't know that.

He slows, mind racing. This is the perfect chance to escape. If he walks out to sea, beyond sight of land, those two will have no way to track him. He can come to shore, disguise himself, and start hunting _that man_ seriously. He can get away from the two people who keep confusing his purpose and forcing him into patterns he thought he'd escaped. He can...

He can get punched in the face by Naruto as he rides a wave back to the beach, that's what.

Sasuke touches his nose. Not broken. Good -- to heal fast he needs to activate the curse seal, and right now he still wants Orochimaru to think he's dead.

"What was that for?" he asks. His voice is calm; it's never a good idea to show your anger or confusion. When did he turn back to shore? He was planning to leave, wasn't he? 

"That was for staying out so long," Naruto growls, "and for leaving the bridge's shadow. We're trying _not_ to be noticed, genius."

"Naruto..." Sakura says, and he shoves his hands into his pockets. She frowns at Sasuke. "Next time, watch us so we can signal you if there's trouble."

Sasuke blinks. He can't help it. _Next time?_ She's not accusing him of trying to escape, not pleading with him to stay close, not threatening him with seals. Even Naruto only seems worried that he might have been noticed, not that he might have left. They're treating him like a teammate, not a traitor.

They have to be insane.

"I'll teach you," he hears himself say. "It might be useful, and any decent shinobi can learn it in a week -- probably a month for the moron."

Naruto and Sakura exchange a long look -- something passes between them, but Sasuke can't for the life of him read it. Satisfaction? Relief? Amusement?

"When we reach Zabuza's hideout," Sakura says. "Thank you."

"Yeah, thanks," Naruto adds. "Now come on, let's cross the bridge. I want to reach old man Tazuna's place before dinner's over."

They're insane. That's the only answer, Sasuke thinks as he follows Naruto up the underside of the bridge, clinging with chakra-soaked feet. They're completely, hopelessly insane.

And they're infecting him.


	6. Spring Cleaning

Inari may have stopped proclaiming doom and death to everyone he runs across, but he's still a supremely irritating brat and he can _not_ keep his nose out of other people's business. By the end of the first day, Naruto's ready to strangle the kid, and as soon as Sakura finishes restocking their supplies, he drags his teammates out the door. Not even the chance of home-cooked ramen could make him spend another night in Tazuna's house.

"That kid," he grumbles as they leap through the forest. "I swear, if I run into him again, I'm gonna kill him."

"Yeah," Sasuke agrees, and Naruto must finally be figuring out how to read him 'cause he can see the sheer relief lurking under the bastard's bored irritation.

Sakura snickers.

Naruto shoots her a wounded look. "What?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Hey, hey, come on, what's funny about it? Inari's a total brat."

"Of course he is," Sakura says. She grins. "He'd almost have to be, considering he acts like a perfect cross between you and Sasuke -- it's no wonder you two don't like him!"

"Sakura-chan!"

"It's true!"

"It is not!" Naruto turns to Sasuke. "Come on, bastard, help me out here. I'm _nothing_ like Inari."

Sasuke just shrugs, red-and-black eyes darting from side to side as he watches for signs of attack or clues to Zabuza's old hideout. Naruto scowls, and tries a different tack. "He _is_ a lot like you, though -- Mister 'I'm So Cool I Only Have One Expression.'"

"Oh, don't be mean, Naruto," Sakura says, and he blinks for a second, wondering if she's going back to always taking the bastard's side. Then she grins. "Sasuke-kun has lots of expressions! First there's bored." She lowers her eyebrows into a glare and scowls.

"Then there's angry. And curious. And happy. And--" Her face doesn't change, and Naruto starts to snicker, seeing where's she's going with this.

Sasuke, true to form, scowls at them. "Pay attention -- we've reached the clearing. Moron, which way did Haku go when you met him?"

"Eh? Oh, that way, I think," Naruto says, pointing vaguely eastward into the heart of the forest. "But I was kinda tired so I wasn't really paying attention, and he probably circled a few times anyway, so I don't know how much help that's gonna be."

"Well then," Sakura says, clapping her hands and pasting cheerful optimism on her face, "let's start looking."

It takes them all morning and half the afternoon to find Zabuza's old hideout -- the Demon of Hidden Mist was, after all, a skilled and experienced shinobi -- and when Naruto finally tracks down the elusive scent of Haku's wildflower shampoo, the bathhouse is caved in. "Probably what broke the bottle," he mutters, as he whistles his finding to Sakura and Sasuke. Well, at least Haku used something easy to smell, or he might not have seen the decaying wood under its cover of vines and fungus.

Sakura sighs when she leaps down from the trees and looks over the hideout, and Sasuke's stillness takes on a deeper tinge of irritation, but this is their best bet for staying hidden. So Naruto leads the way into the carefully-disguised buildings and tunnels, trying to find someplace that isn't such a wreck. The rest of the hideout isn't much better, though. Oh, the room where Zabuza and Haku stayed is clean and sturdy enough -- just dust, spiderwebs, and Haku's old kimono to clear out -- but that's because it's built half into a natural cave and the other walls are stone. The minions didn't get nearly so much shelter, and their walls and roofs have rotted, mildewed, or just fallen in.

"O-kay," Naruto says after he, Sakura, and Sasuke wander and climb through most of the ruined complex and return to Zabuza and Haku's room. "Who gets Zabuza's bed, and who sleeps on the floor?"

Nobody answers.

This is one of the times Naruto wishes Sakura were a little less serious about her vow not to be left behind. Most girls -- Ino, for example, or even Tsunade-baba -- would take the bed 'cause it's their right, or something like that. Then he and Sasuke could claim bits of the floor and feel fine.

But Sakura won't do that. And Naruto knows that he won't feel right taking the bed, and he's pretty sure Sasuke doesn't want to take it either. Maybe that's 'cause Sasuke doesn't want special privileges, or maybe he just doesn't want to be stuck in between Naruto and Sakura without a good escape route, but either way, he's not opening his mouth.

This, Naruto decides, is ridiculous.

So he says so -- says, "Hey, hey, this is stupid," -- and walks over to sit on the bed; it creaks like a rusty iron hinge. Naruto pulls a face. "Okay, so maybe none of us wants the bed, but it's stupid to just stand around like dead fish. I say we get rid of it -- unless you want to share?"

Sakura squeaks, casts a wild glance at Sasuke, and flushes. Sasuke scowls, trying not to act surprised, but Naruto can see the hint of pink in his cheeks. Still uptight, hey, bastard? Jiraiya may be the world's biggest pervert -- hell, no 'probably' about it! -- but at least living with him forced Naruto to learn how to deal with stuff like sex. Okay, so he's never actually tried anything _with_ anyone, but still.

This could be fun.

He grins. "Right, we'll get rid of the _bed_." Yeah, there's the flinch from Sasuke and the flush from Sakura... and a hint of anger in her green eyes. He'll quit while he's ahead. "Let's start cleaning up!"

His teammates are very quick to carry the mattress, box spring, and bed frame out to the collapsed area they've designated the rubbish heap. Naruto whistles to himself as he makes a bunch of clones and has them transform into brooms, dustpans, and buckets -- he's more used to making them into weapons, or a bunch of naked girls, but the principle's the same and it's kinda hard to clean things with a knife. Haku's old kimono will do for rags -- it's a pity to rip up such pretty fabric, but they wouldn't fit Sakura-chan right, not since she got curves, and somehow he can't picture Sasuke in flowers and lilac.

Well, he _can_ , actually, and it's a damn funny idea.

But not yet. The bastard's still too twitchy, and Sakura-chan will kill him if he scares Sasuke away now.

Sakura grabs her supplies and vanishes into the kitchen with a vow to have the wood stove and hand-pump sink both clean and functional in time for dinner. Sasuke walks up the wall and starts knocking down cobwebs, glaring at Naruto. So Naruto takes his broom and heads out to clean the hallways and find something to prop across the empty doorframes leading to the habitable parts of the hideout.

It would be better to work together -- help them build real teamwork -- but at least nobody's being stupid this time around. Tomorrow, though... "Yeah, tomorrow we're gonna head into town and get some nails, and then we're gonna start rebuilding this place. And we'll _have_ to work together for that."

Sakura yells for him near sundown, and Naruto lets go of the clones as he runs in to see what she's decided to cook.


	7. Forward and Back

Naruto, who seems to have worked a ridiculous number of odd jobs to finance his trip and Jiraiya-san's perversions, takes charge of the rebuilding project.

Sakura doesn't protest. She's learned not to doubt him when he says he can do something -- it's easier now that he doesn't boast so much, of course, but she reminds herself over and over again that even three years ago he always came through when it counted. She refuses to judge him by outward appearances anymore. That didn't help any of them.

So she puts Tsunade's lessons to good use and does most of the heavy labor -- digging out rotted foundations, uprooting scraggly trees and bushes trying to grow through fallen ceilings, and hauling stone and lumber to places Naruto marks out. It's hard work, she's sweating like a pig, her feet are caked with mud and unmentionable bits of fungus, and her hair straggles across her face like limp seaweed, but Sakura doesn't really care. There's something immensely satisfying in being the strongest one for a change.

Sasuke doesn't complain either, oddly enough, and only makes one token protest at taking Naruto's orders. Sakura suspects he'd be a lot harder to convince if they were organizing a fight rather than a construction job, but it probably helps that he almost had no idea which end of a hammer was which before Naruto demonstrated things. He's still having trouble with his saw -- keeps getting the teeth stuck in the wood as he pushes too hard or at a bad angle -- and his muttered cursing rises and falls in a quiet rhythm whenever she passes by him.

He's cute when he's pretending not to be out of his element, and careful concentration looks a _lot_ better on his face than a scowl. What would it be like to have him concentrate on her...?

Sakura squashes that thought.

"Hey, Naruto?" she asks. "I'm done pulling up plants. Should I start mixing the mortar?"

Naruto looks down from his perch on a roofbeam, letting his tape measure roll back with a rattling snap. "Yeah, might as well, if you've got the first row of stones level in the trench. Just don't mix too much -- we'll have to break for lunch in an hour or two." He grins. "Hey, it's Sasuke's turn to cook -- you think I can get him to make ramen?"

Sakura rolls her eyes. "What is it with you and ramen? And no, I don't think he'd listen to you."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Go make him help you with the mortar instead. I'd rather have those walls done than a bunch of boards lying around when I can't use them yet." Naruto waves her off and pulls out the metal strip of his measure, squatting to hook it through the hilt loop of a kunai stuck into the wall. Then he stands and walks along the beam, paying out the tape as he goes. He's taken off his jacket, and Sakura can see the play of muscles in his legs and back, and the trained grace that lies underneath his careless walk.

She notices herself wondering what it would feel like to run her hands over his shoulders and butt, and squashes that thought too.

Teammates, she tells herself fiercely. They're her _teammates_. They're like _brothers_. And anyway, Sasuke doesn't like her that way, and Naruto really deserves someone like Hinata, who can manage him with kindness instead of losing her temper when he's an idiot.

With Inner Sakura firmly suppressed and a cheerful smile on her face, she grabs Sasuke's hand and hauls him over to the piles of stone that mark the soon-to-be-reconstructed bathhouse. He flinches at the contact, but he's not pulling away and that, Sakura thinks, is definitely progress. His hands are tough and callused, like all ninja's hands, and she can feel the oddly smooth and shiny patches that mark old burn scars scattered along his fingers and down his wrists.

He always did like fire jutsu, and she's willing to be that some of those are electrical burns from learning Chidori.

The only reason Naruto's hands aren't equally marked -- from knives and wood and the tearing winds of his Rasengan -- is the Kyuubi's healing power.

Sometimes Sakura feels a little useless around Naruto since he so rarely needs medical aid, but she reminds herself of her strength and her skill with seals. Now she's starting to wonder if Sasuke usually needs a medic-nin either. His bloody nose didn't heal any faster than normal, but he doesn't have the new scars three years of intense training should leave -- she's pretty sure she remembers all the visible ones from before he left Konoha -- and she wonders if it has something to do with his curse seal.

They mix the mortar in silence and start laying stones on top of the bathhouse foundation.

Ten minutes later, wiping sweat and damp hair from her forehead, Sakura can't stop herself from asking anymore. "Sasuke, does the curse seal help you heal?"

He twitches.

She takes that as a yes.

He isn't glaring at her or stalking away, so she pushes on. "How much do you know about the seal's mechanics? I talked to Kakashi-sensei, and I've looked through records of what they found in Orochimaru's... laboratory... when he left, but I still don't have all the pieces. I can't figure out where the power comes from -- it can't all be from you, or from Orochimaru. Do you know?"

Sasuke looks blank. "...No," he says eventually. "He wouldn't tell me. But he knows when anyone draws on a seal."

"So the chakra either goes through him, or he's woven an alert into the seal," Sakura muses. "Aha."

"Aha?" And now Sasuke's glaring, turning those unnerving red-and-black eyes on her with every bit of his attention behind them.

_He's looking at me!_ Inner Sakura yelps. _What do I do?!_

Three years ago, she'd have squeaked from fear or fainted from excitement. Now Sakura meets his gaze calmly and says, "Not now. But in a few weeks, I may have something worked out." She squashes the tingle that threatens to sweep over her body. _Brothers_ , she reminds herself. And he isn't interested -- he made that very clear when he knocked her out and ran away in search of power.

"Worked out what?" Naruto asks out of nowhere, bending down to run his fingers through her messy hair. Sakura shivers. "How to make the old pervert stop leering at you? A jutsu to turn leaves into ramen? What to tell your parents when we get home?"

She twists and glares at her teammate; beside her, Sasuke seems to be wavering between masked amusement and a glare of his own. "If I'm not telling Sasuke, I'm not telling you either," she says. "I'm through playing favorites."

"Aww, come on, Sakura-chan! Tell me -- I can keep a secret! Besides, you owe me at least a few favors for all the times you used to chase after this bastard," Naruto whines, his blue eyes twinkling. He dodges her punch, dancing sideways and sticking out his tongue. "Nyah, nyah, can't catch me!"

"Oooh! Uzumaki Naruto, you get back here!" Sakura lunges after him but he slips through her fingers again, hands folded behind his head in the most nonchalant pose imaginable.

"Nope! Not until you tell me a secret."

"...You _want_ to know about her dream wedding?"

Sakura freezes just as she's about to bring her fist down on Naruto's head, and turns toward Sasuke with wide eyes. Did he just make a joke? She looks at Naruto, eyebrows raised -- he nods, wonder painted all over his face. Yes, Uchiha Sasuke, the untouchable ice prince himself, actually deigned to join their endless teasing squabble.

He looks faintly surprised himself, and he's starting to pull defensively inward, blanking his face, so Sakura blurts out the first thing that comes to mind, anything to keep him from closing off again. "He already knows. And it's not what I told you before you left, not anymore. That was when I was twelve and I was an idiot. All I want now is to have both of you there. Because we're family."

Silence.

Then, quietly, he says, "Oh." And he turns around and picks up a new stone, setting it into place on the wall and making minute adjustments until it's perfectly level and perfectly square with the other stones.

Sakura looks at Naruto. 'Where did I go wrong?' she mouths. Sasuke can read lips, but right now he's trying so hard not to pay attention to them that she thinks he wouldn't notice a conversation even if he looked right at them.

Naruto sighs, an invisible weight settling on his shoulders. 'Family,' he mouths, and shrugs.

What? ...Oh. Damnit.

'Hey, he's not running away,' Naruto mouths, touching her shoulder companionably. 'He's been with the Snake-freak for three years -- he's gotta be screwed up even more than he was before. We'll pull him through.'

Sakura nods and squeezes Naruto's hand. Damn right they will.

They're a team. Whatever happens, they'll be facing it _together_.


	8. As the Gentle Rain

The world is painted in lines and edges and dyed with a red watercolor wash. The slightest hint of movement rips across the fragmented lines, disturbing the patterns and calling his attention. The slightest breath of chakra lights the pale red into neon swirls. Nothing escapes his notice.

...And somehow Naruto _still_ manages to surprise him.

Sasuke stabs backwards, destroying the clone that slipped behind him under the cover of sunlight flashing from a thrown kunai, and shakes the ringing out of his ears.

"Better," he calls across the clearing, letting his mouth curve into the faintest of mocking smiles, "but you're still not good enough."

Naruto seethes, pupils narrowing to vertical slits as the Kyuubi's orange chakra boils to the surface of his skin and settles over him like a coat of flames. _Good_ , Sasuke thinks. He needs to test himself, not play games. They aren't a team. He doesn't need to relearn their patterns. He's just letting Naruto and Sakura come along to take care of Itachi's partner, and to help attract _that man's_ attention.

And then Naruto draws a deep breath and forces the rancid, hate-tinged chakra to subside. "Nice try, bastard, but I kidnapped _you_ from the Sound, not the other way around. This is just a two-on-one exercise and I'm not gonna try to kill you, no matter how much you want to die." He grins, that impossibly wide expression of glee that Sasuke's finally realized is sometimes as much a mask as it is genuine, and pushes another dozen shadow clones into existence.

Sasuke blanks his face, memorizes the way Naruto's chakra weaves in and around the Kyuubi's during the jutsu, and leaps for the trees. If he can't make Naruto fight all-out, he'll still take what he can get. And somewhere out in the forest, Sakura is waiting, laying traps. Sooner or later he'll trip one of her tell-tales and she'll draw him in.

This is what he lives for. He is an avenger. He is a ninja. He is a weapon.

Six clones die as he dives from a tree, kunai clearing his path. Naruto has gone suspiciously silent, and Sasuke spares a second to wonder when the moron learned strategy. Probably about the same time Sakura learned how to be strong, he decides; they haven't been idle over the past three years.

What nobody ever realizes -- mostly because he doesn't tell them, but also because the Uchiha didn't let just anybody know their secrets -- is that he was always destined to be a weapon. Even before Itachi, he was becoming a weapon. He was becoming justice.

Sakura's tripwire is obvious, but Naruto is close behind and any of the three fastest ways to avoid the wire will force Sasuke to land on hidden pressure plates. He vaults backwards instead, slamming his feet down on Naruto's neck and slicing a bloody furrow down the moron's spine as he falls to the forest floor. Half a breath and Sasuke's already ten meters away; Naruto's shuriken miss him by over a hand's width.

The Hyuuga have eyes to see the impurities of the physical world; they deem it unworthy and remove themselves. The Uchiha were born when one Hyuuga learned to see through lies, and so the clan pledged to cleanse the world, to bring justice, to make people worthy. This is why the clan served Konoha. This is why the clan plotted to remove the Third Hokage and kill the Kyuubi's host. This is why Itachi killed the clan.

And this is why Sasuke will kill Itachi.

Sakura's fist slams toward his head, and Sasuke drifts to the side, letting her slice past him. The impact rocks a hapless tree, splinters the trunk, and sends it crashing to the ground. From his perch on a nearby branch, Sasuke sketches a tiny bow in recognition of her strength.

Sakura blushes as she paints blood down a scroll, summoning a net of wires around his arms, but Sasuke is gone, leaving nothing but a hollow log for Naruto to strike as the moron plunges from above. 

Itachi's version of justice is false, because Itachi thinks the whole world lies. He finds nothing worthy. He won't care if he destroys everything, because he sees nothing to save... and Sasuke doesn't want the world destroyed, not all of it. He won't ever be as strong as his brother, won't ever have the utter purity of the heartless, the indifference of wildfire, but he has true justice on his side. And justice is more than flame.

Fire may rage and consume everything in its path, but fire dies. Fire can be doused. Fire can be smothered. Fire can be starved.

Justice may be slow and justice may falter, but in the end, justice is inexorable.

Wind howls, catching Sasuke off-guard and slamming him to the ground -- Naruto grins, holding the incomplete Rasengan, palm glowing blue, as he yells for Sakura to come and knock Sasuke out.

The moron's still overconfident; Sasuke files that away, and narrows his eyes. He's run long enough. It's time to switch roles.

Sasuke wipes his hand along the bleeding gash left from Naruto's earlier attack and presses his palm to the ground, gently. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he whispers, a bare trickle of breath over his tongue. "Crescent, Sickle, Scythe, come to me. Bite -- but no poison."

He's seen Naruto's frogs and he admits they're more useful than they sound, but he prefers his snakes. He can't summon any as large as Manda, Orochimaru's serpent, but even a baby snake has fangs. And even a baby snake knows enough to appear in a silent waft of mist rather than an explosion of smoke.

Crescent's fangs slice into Naruto's calf before the moron realizes she's there. Sasuke gives him credit for holding the winds steady while he leaps, but his distraction gives Scythe the second she needs to drop from a branch and bind his arm to his side. Naruto drops the Rasengan before it can blow off his foot.

Sasuke's torn between mild relief and thwarted curiosity; now he won't learn how long it would take the fox to regenerate a whole limb.

He shakes the thought away and leaps for the trees, leaving Sickle to trip Sakura as she throws, sending her shuriken wild.

His old teammates work well together, better than they ever did while he was still a Leaf-nin, but they're still too emotional. They lose their focus. Their purpose isn't honed to a lethal edge.

Sasuke exhales on a sigh and flames wash over the clearing, sparks feeding on the debris Naruto's winds left strewn in drifts and piles. Using fire jutsu in a forest sounds suicidal -- and for most ninja it is, but not for him. The Uchiha are born of fire and serve the flames, and in return the flames serve them. He mutes the blaze with a thought and slips from his perch, memorizing lines, watching for movement.

_There!_

Three clones die in puffs of smoke and Sasuke's kunai ricochet off branches to strike two more, one of which yanks the knife from its shoulder and hurls it back. That's the real Naruto, then; Sasuke marks him even as he flips to a new tree, pursued by another two clones.

If Naruto's the frontal assault, the distraction, Sakura's the poisoned needle lying in wait. She's the one he needs to find... and there she is, above and to his right, fingers flying through unfamiliar patterns of seals. Sasuke stores them for later study, even as he flicks a shuriken to break her concentration.

She bursts into smoke.

Shadow clone! Did she learn that herself, or was Naruto's distraction double-layered? Sasuke kicks another clone to pieces and brings his fingers together in the classic dispelling seal; it works on more than just genjutsu, if focused properly.

Something tingles against his mind.

"Kai."

It fades, and he smirks.

"Your trap didn't work, moron," he whispers into Naruto's ear, stabbing at his side with a kunai. Naruto blocks with the side of his hand and twists away, sweeping Sasuke's feet off the branch as he rolls. Sasuke kicks out, redirecting his fall, and leaps for the high ground.

Naruto doesn't look upset. Or rather, he looks _too_ upset -- he's faking, and while he might fool most people, it's very hard to fool a Sharingan master who's paying attention.

A triple-layered distraction? From the moron? Sasuke recalculates the odds of direct confrontation, and realizes he _still_ has no idea where Sakura vanished to. He should return to defense; one shinobi can only take out two comparably ranked shinobi with great luck... but it takes much less luck to successfully avoid capture or death for long enough to reach safe ground. There is no safe ground in this exercise, but Sasuke's fairly certain that Naruto, at least, will call a break for dinner rather than pursue Sasuke through the night.

That's pathetic, especially since Naruto is the one with the greatest endurance -- Sasuke is fast and Sakura is strong, and they're both still better at control than Naruto, but Naruto can outlast them effortlessly if he wants to bother... so long as Sasuke can't call on Orochimaru's seal.

The three black marks itch at the thought, and Sasuke suppresses the urge to scratch or to pull chakra through the twisted pattern. He absently hurls a few shuriken at Naruto and vaults overhead, kicking the moron down to where Crescent, Sickle, and Scythe lurk in the shadows. "When he escapes, you can leave," he mutters, knowing the snakes will hear.

He wonders where Sakura is. He wonders what she's planning. He wonders what she works on when she sketches patterns and scribbles notes in the evenings. She won't tell Naruto, no matter how much the moron whines and pesters her, and she's uncannily good at tilting the pages at precisely the right angle to block Sasuke's falsely casual glances.

Sakura isn't just strong -- she's clever. That's a dangerous combination in an opponent.

Sasuke freezes for several seconds, letting the forest settle into stillness around him. He can hear Naruto fighting his snakes, swearing as he crashes through the underbrush. To his right, a stream gurgles and splashes along its journey back toward Zabuza's hideout. He can't hear Sakura.

A silent enemy is the most dangerous.

Crescent, Sickle, and Scythe slide off the material plane, and now Naruto has gone silent as well.

Sasuke scowls. He's in a decent position -- back to a tree, hidden in a thick cluster of leaves -- and it's a fool's game to move around with no idea of the enemy's position. But it's also a fool's game to let them find you. He hesitates, considering.

Itachi would strike out in a new direction, but _that man_ doesn't care who he kills. Sasuke could kill Naruto or Sakura before they realized his intent, before they moved to stop him. It's difficult to suppress lethal reflexes, to remember, in the rush of adrenaline, that he's training with allies, not fighting for his life. And it's _tiring_ to deal with those two. It's _confusing_. It's _distracting_. It would be so easy to slip, to let loose the wildfire, to make everything simple again...

No.

Steel glints in the corner of his eye, and Sasuke deflects the shower of senbon aimed at his pressure points. Wind howls upward from his left, and he sprints along the branch, hurling himself into the air.

He isn't Itachi. It's taken him three years to learn that, but Sasuke's finally beginning to see. His soul may be fire -- he's Uchiha -- but fire doesn't understand truth or honor or love. That's where Itachi went wrong -- he forgot that he's also human. He forgot that true justice doesn't bend the world to its ends. Justice _serves_.

As Sakura's bloodied fist slams into his jaw, Sasuke smiles.

\---------------  
\---------------  
\---------------

_The quality of mercy is not strain'd,_  
 _It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven_  
 _Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;_  
 _It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:_  
 _'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes_  
 _The throned monarch better than his crown;_  
 _His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,_  
 _The attribute to awe and majesty,_  
 _Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;_  
 _But mercy is above this sceptred sway;_  
 _It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,_  
 _It is an attribute to God himself;_  
 _And earthly power doth then show likest God's_  
 _When mercy seasons justice._

William Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_


	9. Set the Bait

Sakura stops two steps inside the bar and makes a face. "Are you _sure_ this is the right place?"

Naruto sighs. "Yeah. It's kinda illegal to hire missing-nin, you know? So they can't afford to attract official attention, and as long as they're breaking one law, they might as well break lots." He stares sourly at the life-size posters of naked women (and the occasional naked boy or man) plastered to the walls, and offers silent thanks to the kami that the curtains are drawn across the stage so Sakura can't see the poles, chains, and other props for what has to be _the_ most twisted show the old pervert ever made him sit through.

He risks a look over his shoulder at Sasuke. "Hey, hey, drop the eyes, bastard. We don't want to get recognized until we're out of Wave Country."

Sasuke folds his arms, but when he returns Naruto's glare his eyes are pure black.

Sakura's still examining the room and its scattered patrons, hands perched on her hips and a dangerous gleam in her green eyes. "You thought I couldn't handle this, didn't you," she says. "You thought I'd flip out, or that some piece of scum might grab me and I wouldn't be able to protect myself. That's why you wouldn't let me come alone."

Naruto recognizes the tone of her voice and gulps. "Um."

"You complete, utter, condescending _idiot!_ "

She pulls the punch so he doesn't crash through the door, just into it. Naruto picks himself up, flips Sasuke off for laughing (well, okay, he's not actually laughing, but that little smirk and the funny light in his eyes is the same as any _normal_ person rolling around on the floor), and tries his biggest puppy-dog eyes on Sakura. "Hey, hey, that's not it! I just don't want to be stuck alone with Sasuke-bastard, and we're supposed to be a team. Don't you trust me, Sakura-chan?"

"Shouldn't she be asking you that question?" Sasuke asks.

Sakura sighs. "Forget it," she says, and leads the way to a corner table. People watch them with hard, calculating eyes, and tense as they pass. Missing-nin can't afford to let down their guard, not even around each other, and Naruto can pick out at least five shinobi in the building. They're not wearing forehead protectors, but he can tell. And there's nothing he can do about it.

All the hidden villages know that Wave Country is a hiding place for missing-nin, but as long as nobody stirs up too much trouble or draws too much attention, it's easier to pretend that all these outcast ninja are really civilians. No forehead protectors, right? Obviously they can't be shinobi. And even if they _were_ missing-nin, well, if the villages cleaned up Wave Country, the underground would just move somewhere else. So why bother?

Naruto scowls as he orders a bowl of ramen and a beer. Yeah, so if there weren't any missing-nin then scum like Gato couldn't hire thugs and make trouble, and then people wouldn't bother to hire honest shinobi to protect themselves, and the hidden villages would lose a lot of jobs. So all the Leaf-nin would have to work for scum, and end up fighting shinobi from other villages instead of missing-nin, and probably start another great war. So there are reasons nobody's gonna come clean out Wave Country, or that seedy little town on the border of Fire and Wind Countries, or that harbor up near Thunder Country... but it still stinks.

"You shouldn't drink on duty," Sakura says when their food arrives. She leans sideways and pokes him with her chopstick. "And when did you start drinking anway? I'll have to tell Tsunade-sensei that Jiraiya-san's been a bad influence on you."

Naruto shrugs. "It's a bar and we're supposed to be missing-nin. It'd look weird if none of us drank. Besides, it's not like it does much to me." He waves toward his stomach, and Sakura sighs.

Sasuke swallows a mouthful of rice and snorts. "All that power and you use it to avoid hangovers. Moron."

"Hey!"

"Shush." Sakura pokes him again with her chopstick, then reaches across the table to wave the piece of wood in Sasuke's face. "And you stop smirking at Naruto. You can beat each other up after we leave."

Naruto mumbles a half-hearted apology and settles down to appreciate his ramen. It isn't as good as Ichiraku, or the shrimp ramen he talked Inari's mom into making last night when they dropped in to visit old man Tazuna, but it's still ramen. And he's not ever gonna let anything distract him when he's eating ramen.

Sakura waits for him to finish before she asks, "How long do we have to wait before someone offers us a job?"

Naruto shrugs. "Beats me. When the old pervert dragged me here it was a week before he took a contract, but he was being kinda picky and, well, he's a pervert."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow.

"They do a stage show," Naruto says. " _Really_ kinky. Hey, if we stick around another couple hours they'll bring out the pole dancers. You wanna watch?" He leers across the table and mentally clenches a fist in victory when the bastard flushes. Then Sakura slaps the back of his head and it's time for his face to meet its new best friend, the table.

Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Naruto straightens and wipes blood away from his squashed nose. "Anyway, the first day is just so people can look us over and pass the word that we're available. Tomorrow the bartender might start sending people over to us -- if we ask him when we pay the bill."

"...How much extra?" Sasuke asks.

"Depends. If we're kinda intimidating, it costs less money, but he might send us some real scum in revenge." Naruto scowls. "Hey, hey, how'd you know about the bribes?"

Sakura echoes his suspicious stare with an expression of mild curiosity, and after a few seconds Sasuke lowers his eyes. "Hidden Sound isn't as well-established as the other villages, so Orochimaru finds some contracts through the underground. He also likes to recruit missing-nin. I went on three hiring missions." He shrugs. "I'm a missing-nin. Some shinobi can sense that, and it helps convince them that Orochimaru is honest about his offers of sanctuary."

"You're _not_ a missing-nin, bastard," Naruto hisses before he can stop himself.

"Moron. I left Konoha, I fought Leaf-nin with intent to kill, and I didn't swear loyalty to Sound. What else would I be?"

Okay, so he's got a point, but this is _Sasuke_. He's part of their team. He didn't leave 'cause he wanted to betray Konoha; he just wanted to get strong and he was too stupid to realize that the Snake-freak's offer was poison. Or just too stupid to care, which is more like the bastard; _damn_ if Sasuke can't make himself blind sometimes. Naruto rubs his chest absently. There's no scar from where Sasuke tried to rip out his heart, but sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with a burning ache where there ought to be a mark. Then he reminds himself that Sasuke _didn't_ kill him when he had the chance. Sasuke's got tunnel vision, but he's not half as cold as he pretends he is.

"You didn't kill me," Naruto says. "You could've, and you would've gotten Itachi's freaky eyes, but you didn't. And the Sound hasn't attacked the Leaf in three years. You're _not_ a traitor."

Sasuke looks pointedly at Naruto's hand, which is still touching his heart. Naruto scowls and slams his fist down on the table. "So what! Yeah, anyone else would've died, but anyone else wouldn't have pushed you that far in the first place. I don't care."

And that's the truth: he doesn't. He's had three years to think it over, to try to figure out what the hell Sasuke thought he was doing, and he's decided that in the end, he just doesn't care. Naruto loves Konoha -- it's his home, and he's _going_ to be Hokage or else! -- but he loves it because his precious people live there. So really, he loves his precious people more.

Sasuke was his first friend, his best friend. He can't forgive the way Choji, Neji, and Akamaru almost died, and the way Shikamaru still broods if anyone reminds him of that mission, but when Sasuke tried killing Naruto... well, that was different. They've always fought. Sasuke knows all about the rabid animal inside, the piece of a person that snarls and spits at the world, and he knows that sometimes the only way to talk is by fighting. When he used Chidori, that was just the next line of an argument.

Beside Naruto, Sakura shrugs. "You're right that technically you're a missing-nin, but Naruto's right that it doesn't matter. I told you in Konoha that we don't care. You never betrayed _us_ \-- yes, you left, but you tried to keep me safe and you let Naruto live instead of following Itachi's path."

Sakura's a little different from him and Sasuke -- Naruto's not quite sure what she has chained up inside, but he's pretty sure it's more complicated than just anger and hatred -- but she's part of him the same way Sasuke's part of him. Naruto knows most people don't see the world the way he does, where everything's a straight path once you make a choice; Sakura helps him make sense out of the weird things people do when they can't see how to change things. He has to show people how to believe, how to change, but she doesn't have to fight people to make them pay attention.

Sasuke snorts and folds his arms, the way he does when he can't think of a good response but wants to pretend that he's quitting because _you're_ stupid. They're wearing him down. Sooner or later he gonna have to admit he was wrong, and he's stronger with them than he is alone.

Naruto kicks Sakura's ankle, folds his arms in a mockery of Sasuke, and grins at her. She winks in response. 'Point for us,' she mouths.

"I can still read lips," Sasuke says.

Sakura sighs theatrically. 'You can give the shinobi a target...'

"But you can't make him strike," Naruto finishes out loud, unfolding his arms. Yeah, Sasuke's getting better, but he _really_ needs to work on his sense of humor. He still hasn't realized that they're teasing him.

He pushes his chair back from the table and stands. "Come on, let's go talk to the bartender and get out of here. I wanna see if old man Tazuna knows where to buy a boat."


	10. Wings

Three months since they left Konoha, Sakura thinks to herself as she rolls up her seal diagrams and calculations. One week to Wave Country, two and a half months at Zabuza's hideout, and one week to find a contract and a boat. Three months in hiding, three months preparing to play bait for Itachi. She touches the ribbon in her hair and misses the weight of her forehead protector.

The small boat rocks with the wind and the waves, plowing southwest toward River Country where the merchants' council of Kuronami wants their feudal lord removed, and wants the death blamed on his own son. Most hidden villages are reluctant to play politics without a correspondingly high price, so underhanded assassinations usually go to missing-nin, who already have an unsavory reputation and generally need contracts badly enough that they'll work cheaply.

Naruto doesn't like the mission. Sasuke doesn't care. Sakura is uneasy -- she's never killed anyone in cold blood before -- but they need a contract and this is by far the best of a bad lot. She negotiated the contract with the merchants' representative, after taking a day to ask members of his crew about the about the lord, his son, and the council. She concluded that the merchants were most likely corrupt and simply trying to avoid the lord's taxes, but she'd be willing to kill the nobles for free. She shivers now, remembering the darkness in one sailor's eyes when he talked about his daughter's fate. Some people simply don't deserve to live.

But before they start planning mission details, she has a self-imposed mission to complete.

"Hey, hey, Sakura-chan! Lunchtime!"

Naruto flips down from the railing around the bow, where he's been fiddling with the small front sail -- the jib, the boat's former owner called it. Sakura stands, takes a second to find her balance on the moving deck, and follows Naruto down into the cramped belly of the boat where Sasuke's put together sandwiches for the three of them. He looks curiously at her rolled-up papers, but doesn't ask.

Sakura grabs her sandwich and sinks down onto her bedroll. Today it's dried chicken and an unfamiliar brownish seaweed -- she'll be happy when they reach land again and can eat something fresh and unsalted. Sasuke has a deft touch with their small store of spices and sauces, though, and the sandwich tastes better than it probably has any right to taste.

"Will the wind hold through the afternoon?" she asks, trying to sound casual.

The boys exchange a look she can't quite read, and then Naruto says, "I can't feel a storm and he didn't see any funny clouds, so yeah, probably. Why?"

Sakura pats the notes that lie by her side. "I think I figured out Sasuke's seal."

Sasuke whips his head around and stares, his eyes flashing from black to red, and Sakura does her best to push down any thoughts and emotions except confidence and honesty. Deep down, Inner Sakura is screaming and throwing a fit because he doesn't trust her, but Sakura refuses to let any hint of anger show on her face.

"When?" Sasuke asks, letting the Sharingan go.

Sakura flicks a glance at Naruto, who winks at her and nods. Yes, he's noticed that Sasuke isn't keeping up that twenty-four hour watch any more. And yes, he'll keep the boat going while she's busy.

Sasuke taps his foot. From anyone else it would be nothing but impatience, but from him -- along with the subtle lift of an eyebrow -- it says that he caught that exchange and would they please stop acting like he's blind and stupid.

Sakura grins; they'll suck him into their games sooner or later. "I just finished. If you're willing, I'd like to test my theories," she says to Sasuke. "Come up on deck where there's light."

As she follows Sasuke up the ladder through the narrow hatch, Sakura clutches her papers and mentally crosses her fingers. She's pretty sure her plan will work... but the curse seal is the most complicated bit of ninpou she's ever worked with. It took her a month of calculations to get the barest glimpse into its inmost workings -- including one week straight where she put a sleeping jutsu on Sasuke each night and prodded at the quiescent seal with fingers, ink, blood, and chakra, trying to feel out its basic pattern and the ways it linked to Sasuke, to its maker, and to whatever it used as a power source. It's taken another month of diagrams and numbers, experimental jutsu and seals, and a few quiet conversations with Naruto on what the Kyuubi feels like when he draws enough chakra to change, for her to feel confident enough to try tweaking anything.

The human body can only produce so much chakra, no matter how long and hard a ninja trains. Naruto gets around this by drawing on the Kyuubi. Orochimaru apparently learned about that side-effect of the Fourth Hokage's seal, and wondered if he could draw chakra from other sources, such as the streams of chakra generated by moving water, molten rock, storms, trees, animals, and all the varied cycles of the natural world. Nobody's ever managed to retune that power to meld with human chakra, but Orochimaru found a way around that. He's sick, insane, and evil, but there's no question that he's a genius. 

The first level of his seals channels the power through tattoo-like markings, in effect turning a person's skin into a giant seal scroll. The second level... that's a little different. After a certain point, the power rips through that net of ink and pours directly into the body. And just as the human body can only _produce_ so much chakra, a ninja can only hold and channel a certain amount of power before burning out and dying, either in a rain of blood and bone or as a scatter of dust on the wind.

If, that is, the ninja's body is still human.

That's Orochimaru's genius: to think of the unthinkable, and make it happen.

"Take your shirt off and lie down," Sakura says to Sasuke. "I think I can cut the connection to Orochimaru and keep the seal active under your control, but this will take several steps and I'll have to draw a lot of seals on you."

Sasuke pulls his shirt over his head, tucks it under one of the numerous ropes that crisscross the deck, and stretches out in the midday sun. Two wide, ragged lines of scar tissue run down his shoulder blades, and tiny dots from Haku's paralyzing senbon ring his neck, but the rest of his skin is pale and smooth. Sakura stares at the play of muscles in his back for several seconds before she notices Inner Sakura drooling. She smacks herself mentally. He's not interested, and anyway now is _not_ the time! Then she opens her bag of seals and medical supplies, snags Sasuke's shirt to fold under her knees, and dips her brush into a jar of ink.

The first step is to paint a containment ring around the seal, to block its connection to Orochimaru. Then she prods Sasuke with the wooden end of her brush and tells him to draw a trickle of chakra through the seal, just enough to set the three black marks spinning.

Her own characters writhe and coil, boiling off his skin and burrowing into his body to form a latticework cage around the seal. "Now use the Sharingan," she says as she holds a mirror over Sasuke's shoulder, "and tell me where it's trying to escape the cage."

Sakura grins when he points to three spots in her sphere of ink, and she scribbles seals on narrow strips of specially prepared rice paper. Then she wraps the wards around three senbon and stabs through each weak point, one by one by one. Sasuke doesn't even wince as the needles bite into his neck.

"I'm glad you never talked shop with Haku," Naruto remarks from over her shoulder. He shudders theatrically. "This looks _way_ too familiar already -- if he goes unconscious, I'm gonna start looking around for Zabuza."

"Shut up, Naruto," Sakura says, absently backfisting his knee. "Go... tack the sails, or boom the jib. Do boat things. Just don't interrupt me."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going." Naruto rubs his knee, kicks Sasuke companionably in the shin, avoids Sasuke's retaliatory strike, and ambles off toward the stern with a coil of frayed rope slung over his arm. Sakura wastes a minute watching him slice out the tattered sections and start weaving the good bits back together. His hands are quick and sure, and he looks utterly calm, as if there's no question that she'll succeed and Sasuke will be fine. His hair shines like gold in the sun.

Sakura shakes off her distraction and turns back to Sasuke. She has the connections pinned; it's time to release the cage. She forms three hand seals, concentrates, and dips her brush into the suspended ink. It swirls around the soft bristles like dye in water, then abruptly loses cohesion and patters down onto Sasuke's back like colored rain. The senbon and their wards stand untouched in the center of the puddled ink.

This is the moment of truth. Sakura draws a special kunai from her bag, one she had Tenten's father forge specially on auspicious days, drawing wards, seals, and unbinding spells into the metal at every stage. She wraps a final strip of rice paper around the hilt, gathers her strength, and slices the senbon in half. Shorn steel falls to the deck, rings against the wood, and rolls away. She draws the remnants from Sasuke's neck and waits. The curse seal spins. One breath. Two. Three. No new marks form.

"Is that it?" Sasuke asks.

Sakura meets his eyes and tries to look encouraging. "Um, no. That's just step one."

This time she makes Sasuke sit against the main mast while she paints seals on the deck, recalibrating her symbols so they don't just paralyze any outgoing chakra, but also haul the strands into the visible spectrum. Sasuke draws the curse seal out to cover his body, and Sakura fights back both a scowl and a giddy smile when her cage wraps tendrils around nine streams of sickly green chakra. The scowl is for how deep Orochimaru's fangs are sunk into Sasuke. The grin is for the way her predictions were _right_. This seal is second only to the one on Naruto's stomach, and she's figured it out!

Nine senbon, nine rice paper wards, and nine slices with her kunai. "One last step," she says, and Sasuke nods. He can see what comes next.

The last containment ring wreathes around the mast, up along the sails -- Naruto hovers nearby while Sakura clings to the rigging, just in case she loses her grip -- and down into the belly of the boat. She's not taking any chances here; if she misses even one connection, the seal might be able to reconstruct the whole net that ties it back to its creator.

Sasuke draws chakra, and more chakra, and still more, until Sakura almost feels like a miniature thunderstorm is building around him. Naruto leans against the port railing, deceptively relaxed; his eyes are red and his fingers clawed, and Sakura hopes that neither of her boys loses control, not out here on the water, miles from shore. Her scrolls are ready in her pockets, but if they fight, there's no way she can seal them before they wreck the boat.

She's never seen the transformation, but it's fascinating to watch, in a gruesome way. Sasuke's body darkens, strains, and deforms. Giant _things_ burst from his back, like malformed hands or shrunken wings, and suddenly the source of those twin scars is clear. Horns twist down over his dead white hair, and claws and fangs grow to match Naruto's.

Oni, Inner Sakura murmurs. _He's an oni! A night-haunt! How could he do this to himself?_

But underneath the monster, she can still see Sasuke. Same face, same stance, same I'm-too-proud-to-admit-that-I'm-uneasy expression in his eyes. She can see that Naruto's not moving to attack. And she can see twenty-seven strands of sickly green chakra leading out from Sasuke's tenketsu, shackles that bind him to Orochimaru.

Twenty-seven senbon. Twenty-seven wards. Twenty-seven strikes. Sakura dissolves her seals, and steps back to watch her boys.

Naruto and Sasuke look at each other, considering. "So," Naruto says eventually, "you're still special." He lets go of the railing and saunters over to poke at one of the misshapen hands. "Can you do anything with those things on your back?"

Sasuke blinks. "...I have no idea."

Naruto grins, a white flash of fangs against his tanned face. "Hey, hey, I dare you to try flying!"

Sasuke blinks again. "Moron. Why should I?"

"'Cause it'd be cool!"

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

"Scaredy-cat."

Ten minutes later, Sakura finishes mopping up puddled ink, tosses her broken senbon overboard, and leans back against the stern rail. Naruto perches on the tip of the main mast, waving his arms and yelling as he weaves and throws one incomplete Rasengan after another. Sasuke dives and soars, dancing over the choppy winds the same way he slips through trees and shadows, with eerie, effortless grace.

This is the way they were always meant to be. Three of them, together, against the world.

Sakura closes her eyes to bask in the afternoon sun, and smiles.


End file.
